Not Many Chances Left to Get It Right

The quality of inevitability in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto seems to be having the side effect of diminishing its meaning. I think we need to avoid the bathos of mourning, and recognize that Pakistan is of such primary importance for enemies of this country that they cannot tolerate a moderate influence. As Diane said Sunday, What is not debateable is that this administration's foreign policy has been a disaster for the US and for the world.

This from me who usually mocks attempts to tout the GWOT. But I do recognize that the focal point of unadulterated hatred of the west, and of civilization in general, is in those tribal areas we have thrown money to Musharraf to control. And needless to say, our money, which has been unwisely directed with insensitivity to Pakistan's realities, has been wasted for our purposes.

The murder of Bhutto was not just an attempt to derail Pakistani democracy, or prevent an enlightened Muslim woman from taking power. It was a counterattack, apparently by the Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda, against a U.S.-backed transition from direct to indirect military rule in Pakistan by brokering a forced marriage of “moderates.”

According to last July’s National Intelligence Estimate on the al Qaeda threat, bin Laden has re-established his sanctuary in the Pakistani tribal agencies. According to a report by the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, the suicide bombers for Pakistan and Afghanistan are trained in these agencies.

Most global terrorist plots since 9/11 can be traced back to these areas. And Pakistan’s military regime, not Iran, has been the main source of rogue nuclear proliferation. It is therefore the U.S. partnership with military rulers in Pakistan that has been and is the problem, not the solution.
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An interim of emergency rule and the postponement of national elections may now be inevitable. But if the military re-imposes martial law, further guts Pakistan’s judiciary and legal system, and blocks democratization, Pakistan’s people will resist.
For the first time in the history of Pakistan, respect for the military as an institution has plummeted. The vacuum of authority and legitimacy created by military rule will provide the Taliban and al Qaeda the opportunity they seek.

The Bush administration’s nightmare scenario—the convergence of terrorism and nuclear weapons—is happening right now, and in Pakistan, not in Iraq or Iran. Yet as recently as Dec. 11, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen, speaking to the House Armed Services Committee with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, hardly mentioned Pakistan, and characterized Afghanistan as second in priority to Iraq.

Ignorance has gotten us into deep, deep danger. Ignoring a security briefing prior to 9-11 typifies the attitude of the occupied White House. It is aggressively ignorant, thinking is not appreciated, and knowledgeability in world affairs is described as effete 'nuance'. Working with disparate elements, in the world and domestically, is impossible from this group of war criminals, as impossible as their giving respect to views that are different from their own.

It is imperative that we work for new, intelligent, leadership. Please act; you can start with signing Wexler's petition to impeach. Go to http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com/ and sign now. Please inform your friends, too.